GOP's Mulvaney enlists Tea Party support at home

Blaze over 100 miles of campaign trail, from the Kershaw County tea party to Tega Cay, and still make church by 4 p.m.

That was Mick Mulvaney's itinerary on the last Saturday before Election Day.

Shortly after noon, a slightly hurried Mulvaney - the Republican challenger to 14-term Democratic Congressman John Spratt - arrived at the Kershaw County Patriots Fair in Camden.

Dressed in blue jeans and a blue oxford with the sleeves casually rolled up Mulvaney emerged from the dimly lit E. Jackson Memorial Rhames Arena into the sunlight. There was a modest crowd of about 70 people gathered to eat, listen to live music, and hear candidates from various races speak.

Mulvaney was about stopped about 20 twenty paces from the edge of the stage when he was greeted by the Rev. Hubert Young stopped him, showing Mulvaney an advertisement he took out in the Camden Chronicle on Mulvaney's behalf. Underneath a picture of Young's pick-up truck with a Mulvaney sign filling the truck bed, Young wrote about why he's helping the state senator from Indian Land campaign for Congress.

"He's needed in Washington. He speaks our language," Young said, a shared sentiment at the event organized and largely attended by tea party members displeased with high unemployment, government spending, and the fear of increased taxes.

Eric Boland, running for Kershaw County Council, said Mulvaney has been campaigning along the southern border of the 5th Congressional District where Democrats have some sway. Spratt took Kershaw County in 2008 and 2006, winning with 54 percent of the vote in 2008 and 2006.

Mobilizing the tea party has been a key strategy of GOP candidates across the state, including Mulvaney.

Through the Kershaw County Patriots, voters such as Marilyn Newman from Elgin, recently got involved in politics. She says she's been "learning a lot about government" by attending tea party meetings. in Elgin.

"People need to be more involved," said Newman, for whom term limits and healthcare are major issues in this election.

"I don't want (the government) to do anything for me, but I don't want them to take anything away," she said.

Some Mulvaney supporters at the fair were once there for Spratt.

"I voted for Mr. Spratt for 20 years, but lately I can't identify with what he's doing," said Jim Rose who moved to Liberty Hill from New York. Rose criticized government spending on small, "shovel-ready" projects that have little lasting impact, he said.

Waiting to take the stage, Mulvaney said he's looking forward to Tuesday, when he can rejoin his family and start preparing for the next step, which could mean Congress.

"The energy has been really high," he said, pleased with the turnout at his recent campaign appearances.

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"You'll probably have to tie my folks down to keep them from voting," he said.

On stage Mulvaney said, "What you see here is the real grassroots of America."

"Do you want to know why I'm here?" he asked. "I'm angry. I'm frustrated," he said, in a message that steered clear of recounting campaign promises and focused on getting out the vote.

Mulvaney urged everyone to vote, to drive trucks with his signs, or to talk to their friends - which is "almost as powerful as television," he said.

After leaving stage, Mulvaney talked to a few more supporters, leaning down to pet a black lab with a "Sack Spratt" sign hanging around its neck.

Around 12:30 p.m., he left for the Tega Cay Fall Festival, more than 70 miles away at the Tega Cay Golf Club, where his wife, Pam, awaited him.

Around 2:45 p.m. at the festival, Mulvaney was greeting passersby at in front of the GOP campaign tent, where Pam said she wondered if she should have spent the day elsewhere, having met so many supporters.

Supporters such as GiGi Peemoeller, who was headed home with a Nikki Haley sign for governor and a Mulvaney sticker on her shirt.

She, like many of Mulvaney's supporters on the campaign trail Saturday, is looking for a change.

She's voting for Republicans across the board "to get jobs back in the community," she said. "We need something to happen. Right now, nothing is happening."

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